Collecting log: My Lucky Day (when I happened to get a rare sample record)

In Japan, Brilliant Disguise, the first single off the album TUNNEL OF LOVE in 1987, was released twice commercially as a 7" format: one as a standard two-track disc (backed w/ Lucky Man) and another as a low-budget, one-track reissue (CBS SONY 07SP 1070 and 04SP 1075, respectively). To boost the sale of these singles and the album, CBS/SONY distributed three promo/sample 7" counterparts (the same catalog numbers as aforementioned and XDSP 93096). Two of them have become highly sought-after collectibles, one solely for its rarity (center; this post) and another not only for its scarcity but also for the unique promotion-only sleeve design (left; see also 11/20/2016).

Classic Vinyl Bootleg Revisited: ALL THOSE YEARS — unofficial but the first retrospective release of a supectacular 10-LP box collection (Part 3 of 3)

One of the ten white label test pressing discs of the
ultimate Bruceleg. Shown is Side Two of Disc One,
as indicated by the matrix number "SR 112," hand-
marked on the plain label and engraved on the vinyl
deadwax (not in my possession). Photos provided
courtesy of hrubesh.

 

"As the man behind many older bootlegs, including All Those Years, one has to be impressed with the sincerity and integrity of Mr. Dane* as a bootlegger."
(unsigned article,1989) Bootleg Compact Discs: An exclusive investigation into illegal CDs. Backstreets Magazine, Number 29, excerpted from p. 16.
*Pseudonym for an anonymous member of the Italian Great Dane Records label who was interviewed by the magazine for the article when he participated at the Austin Record Convention, Texas, in the Spring of 1989. Needless to say, the label purportedly released the first known Bruceleg CD (i.e., YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME) early that year.

"Great Dane consists of a group of collectors. We select artists using our 'heart', [and] we select our production considering three things: popularity of the artist, quality of available tapes and the sales potential. There's nothing original in this, except that we consider Europe as our market."
Clinton Heylin (1995) Chapter 17. It was less than twenty years ago ... In: Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, excerpted from p. 310, St. Martin's Press (New York).